9 April 2015
By Bryan T. Smyth
bryan@TheCork.ie
The National Maritime College of Ireland (NMCI) has been recognised for its excellence at the 2015 Irish Logistics and Transport Awards Ceremony, for the second year in succession, for its Bachelor of Business degree in Supply Chain and Transport Management. The NMCI was also nominated for the overall Excellence in Logistics Award. Jane O’Keeffe, Director of Supply Chain at the NMCI, collected the award at an annual gala event in Dublin, attended by over 400 delegates from the logistics and transport sector.
NMCI, a constituent college of Cork Institute of Technology, focuses on both maritime and non-maritime industry sectors and offers customised education and training programmes to meet individual requirements. The Bachelor of Business in Supply Chain and Transport Management degree programme is designed to support industry requirements, for those with experience in logistics and supply chain management and those who wish to further their career prospects.
This unique programme, now in its eight year, builds upon the student’s experiential knowledge and provides grounding in a wide and diverse range of disciplines. To date, graduates have experienced excellent employment and career progression opportunities in both indigenous and multi-national organisations. The programme has been so successful within the logistics and supply chain industry nationally that it is proposed to incorporate modules in logistics and supply chain into the Bachelor Degrees in Nautical Science, Marine Engineering and Marine Electro-technology at the NMCI.
The Government Future Skills Needs publication in February of this year highlighted the Freight Transport, Distribution and Logistics (FTDL) sector in Ireland as a significant growth area for the period 2015-2020. Programmes such as those on offer at the NMCI are seen to address the opportunities highlighted at middle management level within the sector.
The NMCI is ideally positioned to support logistics and supply chain education and job creation as in excess of 90% of global trade by volume is transported by sea. This is an indication of the importance of logistics to the maritime industry, and of even greater importance to Ireland, where 98% of trade by volume comes through its seaports. The NMCI facility, which embraces advanced technologies including simulation in its programmes, is ready to meet the growing demand in best in class logistics and supply chain education and training.